Carolyn is what is called an "eternal investigator." She's had the lessons multiple times, by multiple missionaries and she kept having hold ups since she started learning almost a year ago. But with much prayer, the missionaries found out that her problem was the word of wisdom. She simply didn't believe that she could overcome that hurdle. eventually they lost contact with her and she stopped her path of progression.
Fast-forward to a week before I came to Bremerton, the elders were calling former investigators and decided to call Carolyn, they set up an appointment with the idea that they would be the ones to teach her the following week.
Well of course they were transferred and Sister Pluim and I came in and started teaching Carolyn. She told us to be patient with her and that she needed her time. On the second lesson she told us she wants to be baptized, and we put her on date to be baptized next month. The next time we went over we planned to teach her about the word of wisdom and she told us that she hadn't smoked in five days! She also told us that she was down to one cup of coffee a day and that even that one cup tasted nasty to her. We hadn't even talked about the word of wisdom with her!
Christopher Robbin once told Winnie the Pooh, "You are Braver than you believe, smarter than you seem, and stronger than you think."
Carolyn could have quit smoking whenever, she could have quit coffee whenever, as her missionaries, we always believed she could, she just had to believe in herself.
I think we can all learn a lesson from Carolyn's story, we are braver than we believe we are! My mom sent me a necklace for Christmas that says, "You've always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself."-Glinda the Good Witch. What an incredible truth, we are more powerful than we think we are, we are stronger than we think we are, it is only our own self criticism that is holding us back. So go out there and do something scary, or something hard, because you can do it, don't hold yourself back!
All my love,
Sister Megan Monson
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